HELSINKI (AFP) - The Finnish airline upgrades forecast as demand once again is growing – and orders five new Airbus airplanes.

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Finnish flag carrier Finnair will order five new Airbus A321ER airplanes for its European fleet, with the first deliveries expected in 2013, it said Thursday.

The order, which Finnair said was the first for this newer version of the basic A321, is worth more than 400 million euros (483 million dollars) based on list prices, Finnair said in a statement.

"The new type of aircraft is more fuel efficient than before and it produces less emissions," Finnair spokesman Christer Haglund said, adding the purchase would standardise the company's fleet of planes.

Over the next few years, the new planes would replace four of the airline's Boeing 757 aircraft, it said.

The Finnish airline signalled an improvement in business prospects on Wednesday, ditching an earlier outlook for a worse second quarter.

It said it expected its April-June operating figures to show an operating loss similar to or smaller than the first-quarter figure.

It had previously forecast the second-quarter result to be "clearly worse" than the January-March operating loss of 26 million euros (31.1 million dollars).

"We naturally cannot be satisfied with a loss-making result, but the trend in profitability is encouraging," Finnair CEO Mika Vehvilaeinen said in a statement.

The forecast upgrade stems from "better than expected development of demand and unit revenues," Finnair said, adding the impact of massive clouds of ash from an Icelandic volcano eruption that wreaked havoc for air travel in April and May had been "milder than expected".

Finnair said demand in markets outside of its Finnish home-base was growing, but domestic business travel remained subdued.

Demand for cargo traffic had "improved significantly" in past months, Finnair said.